


A Day Off

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: With no missions and chores to be done, Elesis was bored when she caught Raven walking back to the inn.
Relationships: Raven Cronwell/Elesis





	A Day Off

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

Shouts and murmurs overlapped one another, swords clattered against the blacksmith’s hammer, and wind chimes clang with the sea breeze carried over from the ports. Foreign spices overwhelmed one’s sense, a mixture of everything that made it hard to pinpoint its components. Even the air felt different, sharp and salty to the taste if one was to close their eyes and breath in.

It was hard to believe this was the merchant’s area. Everything about the city was pristine, sculpted out of white marble with gold and blue stones decorating the exteriors. There were cracks on the floor and several of the buildings, but not many. They contrasted against the ruined buildings in Hamel’s outskirts, where the demons’ influences had spread. 

Bouncing in her heels, Elesis stopped when she caught a familiar face among the crowds of merchants, civilians, and soldiers. She pushed through the packed streets and waved with both of her arms, happy to see him. 

“Heya, Raven!” 

The Veteran Commander did a double take when she approached him, but gave a steady smile, “Hello, didn’t expect to see you.”

Why? Because most of the group was out, there was no need to upgrade weapons, shop for equipment, or any of that because they were already completed on their last free day? The redhead crossed her arms and twitched. 

“Shopping for dinner?” She noticed Raven holding grocery bags that could feed two or three households for a week, although with how big the Elparty had grown, it wasn’t an exaggeration. It was already hard to balance the party’s money without including living expenses like eating and resting at inns. Would it be ungrateful to ask Aisha to conjure food out of thin air? 

“Yeah,” Raven chuckled, “Elsword ate the last bit of leftovers for lunch.” 

“Let me help!” The Blazing Heart didn’t wait for an answer and stole three bags to carry with both hands. 

There was a bounce in her footsteps when she almost skipped back to the inn they were staying at. Elesis counted her lucky stars that their destination was close to the marketplace, a few minutes’ walk at most, but the extra weight made it feel longer when they stopped to take a breather. 

“Are you done with training already?” Raven asked. 

She shrugged, “There’s only so much training you can do in a day.”

He nodded in understanding, “It’s hard to stand still when it’s quiet, isn’t it?” 

“They’re missing out on the fun we’re having,” Elesis joked. Her voice was steady, but was it convincing enough? The look Raven was giving her gave her the feeling that it wasn’t. 

Although none of them said it out loud, the red sparks threatening to erupt from her fingertips seemed to express the sentiment the most. Hamel was partially submerged because of the demon invasion, leaving their recent missions to involve investigating the depths of the sea. Being fire users, that meant she, her brother, and Raven were for lack of better word, useless. Even before she joined her brother and his friends, she was rarely alone because she had her men to think of and worked with them through many of the missions assigned to them. It was unrealistic to think she would never stumble on obstacles that would block her ability to fight, but watching the party leave without them felt wrong.

“You think those four know how to swim?” Elesis mused at the funny image: a mage, elf, nasod, and child wading underwater in search for clues to the El’s whereabouts. Could nasods swim? When she asked the nasod queen, she was provided with a long explanation she couldn’t make head of. She was going to assume it was a yes if Eve had no qualms about going near water. 

“Chung and Rena should,” Raven said. “I don’t know about the other two. Do you?” 

“Of course!” No child from Ruben grew up without learning to swim at Lake Noahs. Among house wives’ whispers were rumors that the water had special property that could heal the tired and the sick. “Do you?”

“Yes, but it would be unwise for me to.”

It took Elesis a moment to understand the statement until Raven waved his nasod arm for her attention. Oooh, right, nasod arm. Waterproof or not, the additional weight would slow them down. 

When they returned to the inn, the front lobby was packed with travelers and soldiers lined up at the front desk. Squeezing past the crowd and making their way back to their rooms, it took them several tries to get the key to work so they could open the door. Once they stored most of the food, Elesis followed Raven to the chicken to see the Veteran Commander wearing a pink apron. 

Was it already time? Elesis glanced at the stove clock to see it was half past four, then turned her head to see the sun high up and gleaming down through the windows. The sun here felt different too, less intense and cooler than Velder.

“They’re not back.” The redhead rested her eyes on the empty main room connected to the kitchen. It was a suite styled rooming with a hallway leading to multiple rooms for different people, perfect to house full parties such as themselves. 

“The enemy must be hiding the duke well,” Raven opened a bag of flour to pour into a bowl with a plastic cup. He dug through the pantry for the paprika, salt, and pepper to toss with the flour to make the seasoning. 

“Some mission,” Elesis scratched the back of her head. “All this to save someone who can’t keep his head above the water.” She grabbed a knife from the drawer to open a bag of vegetables on the counter. A number of questions spurred in her mind as she began chopping them on the cutting board beside raven. Unable to control the panic from the demon invasion, going missing, being rumored to be kidnapped by mermen of all things… was Duke Rod Ross worthy of his title?

A smile tugged at the corner of Raven’s mouth at the play on words, “It’s hard to sympathize when his secretary said this wasn’t the first time. Nobles in Hamel aren’t too different from the ones in Velder, it seems.” 

“It seems so,” Elesis laughed.

Despite the struggles she had when she was stationed in Velder, nostalgia overwhelmed her when she was thought of the people she met and the places she traveled to with her men. Hearing Raven’s occasional comments about the army made her happy to see she wasn’t alone. 

“It’s hard talking to them sometimes,” she admitted. “It’s like they’re talking another language!”

“They do say things differently than the common folk for certain things,” Raven agreed. “Didn’t you live in Velder for a time?”

“I did, but it was mostly teaching my men how to fight more than talking to the nobles.” 

“We’ll have to cooperate with them more in Hamel,” he said. “Are you okay with that?” While he appreciated Elesis’ enthusiasm, he knew Hamel was different from the experience Elesis must have had with Velder holding less emphasis on nobility but was more military based. 

“Me? Nah, I’ll be fine!” The Blazing Heart shrugged it off, but paused when she thought she heard someone walking down the hallway. That must be Elsword, she noted. 

Raven must have heard the footsteps too and said, “Well, Elsword seems to represent us and I worry if we encounter someone who won’t be as forgiving if he accidentally steps out of line…”

Her expression wavered. Elsword did use a Ruben slang a merchant mistakened as an insult when the Rune Slayer tried to make a bargain the other day. Perhaps she needed to talk to him. She pondered on what to tell her younger brother. 

“You seem fluent in doing this sort of thing,” Elesis made her decision. “Teach me how to talk to nobles then!”

“H-hey, I’m no expert!” He made a choking noise she assumed as surprise…of happiness? Raven coughed, “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon-”

“And that’s why you’ll be a great teacher!” She beamed, “You tell me the common folk equivalence with the fancy talk and I’ll teach Elsword afterward!”

“Fancy talk?” The older man blurted out a loud laugh before controlling himself and stifle a smile. Raven finished mixing the eggs with water in a separate bowl and a bit of salt and pepper. 

She finished cutting the last slices of onion and bell pepper, stringing them together on a kabob and was pleased with herself. It looked like Raven was almost done too with washing the chicken and covering them with the seasoning he made earlier. All was left was to cook them on a frying pan and wait for them to cool. 

Elesis grinned, “I’ll pick it up, no problem!” 

Raven returned one and chuckled, “I’ll see what I can do then. Tomorrow?”

She beamed, “Tomorrow, after breakfast.” Elesis watched Raven heat up the stove in preparation to fry the chicken and had a gleam in her eyes when she offered to add extra paprika to the first piece. 

“Be careful,” he said.

“Hey,” she said with a wink. “Just a little.”

Raven stared, “You poured at least two spoons.”

Elesis waved it off, “This isn’t for me.”

Color drained from Raven’s face before he realized when she meant when he caught her with a devious expression. 

“This is for Elsword eating the last sandwich,” the redhead cackled while Raven groaned. It looked like Raven did have a soft heart after all as Rena claimed. She couldn’t wait to tell the elf the good news tonight when the rest of them came home.


End file.
